The Daring Search for Killer B
- Episodes : 12
- Genre : Action, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Police, Psychological, Thriller
- Airing Date : Mar, 2018
- Producers : Production I.G
Contains Spoilers
B: The Beginning Introduction and Story (Spoilers)
B: The Beginning follows Keith Flick as he joins a police force known as RIS. A killer named Killer B—due to the marks he leaves at the scene of the crime—is on the loose and Keith’s skills as an expert detective are needed in finding him. However, unknown to Keith and his team, there are more elements going on then anyone can see. Behind the scenes, a criminal organization with nefarious abilities known as Market Maker are aiming to change the world using their various powers. Keith prepares to take down a threat he thinks on the onset is just a serial killer but no one is prepared for the truth. This is where the start of Keith and Koku—a character who isn’t exactly human—begins in B: The Beginning.
The first few episodes of B: The Beginning introduces the main characters like Keith, Lily and Eric—the leader of RIS group hunting Killer B—are shown to establish who are main team of heroes are. Equally, we get glimpses at villains like Market Maker and notice a looming thread that intertwines everyone together. B: The Beginning aims at quickly showing the teamwork—and lack of—in the RIS force as they foil a few plots before their hunt for Killer B really begins. This keeps B: The Beginning from really showing its true plot until episode 5 or so where we begin to learn about why Koku is the being he is and what makes Market Maker such a scary force.
B: The Beginning tells two stories essentially at once that, as we mentioned, do merge together as B: The Beginning reaches its climax. The main mystery element comes in the form of Keith Flick as we see his past of losing a loved one from someone named Dead Kyle and his obsession with Killer B. Then the other half of B: The Beginning comes in the form of Koku who we learn was a human experiment that was helmed by Keith’s father—Heath Flick—as well as various others who aimed at cloning a past civilization of winged beings. Koku’s focus is on finding a girl named Yuna and killing anyone that seems evil—we learn quickly that Killer B and Koku are one in the same—to hopefully get closer to finding her. By episode 9, viewers will begin to see all the connections between Keith, Koku and Market Maker as they all collide in one epic showdown.
Keith, near the end, comes face to face with the true killer of his “sister” and Koku learns of why his memories—which we learned were sealed several episodes back—were seemingly missing. B: The Beginning thus has both heroes—Keith and Koku—facing their pasts in one final showdown. Do both of them get the justice they sought after? We know the answers to that but this is where our spoilers for B: The Beginning end. If you want to see why you should care about B: The Beginning any further, continue down below as we dive into B: The Beginning a bit more thoroughly!
What We Liked About B: The Beginning
Mystery anime don’t come around in the anime world as much as they used to back in the early 2000s which has always made us a bit sad here at Honey’s Anime HQ. We loved the thrill of watching a mystery series and trying to pick out who we could trust and who the villains at play were. That’s why we instantly were intrigued by B: The Beginning and after watching all 12 episodes of this crime thriller with a component of supernatural action, we were truly taken aback. B: The Beginning ends on a note that a season 2 could be very possible but even if it didn’t happen, we’d still be okay with how the series concluded. B: The Beginning tells a story made us think about who the killer was and why these superpowered humans were involved. B: The Beginning delivers a mystery anime experience that we haven’t seen too often before and by the end we were thoroughly please with how the series played out.
Discussion Time
Now let us really dig into B: The Beginning more thoroughly as we split out review into two parts. First, we wish to examine why we loved B: The Beginning and equally why you guys and girls will love it too and wish to watch it as soon as you possibly can. We also wish to talk about why you might wish to skip B: The Beginning entirely seeing as how this series isn’t perfect and does have some glaring flaws that might make your experience of B: The Beginning slightly weaker than others. Don’t worry, below we keep things as spoiler free as we can by only pointing out details without being extremely specific. Now let us first look at what we liked about B: The Beginning and why you’re going to want to watch this mystery and action series.
Why You Should Watch B: The Beginning
B: The Beginning is one of those series that tells a rather unique tale of love, death, revenge and mystery. Rather than just focusing on solving a deeply complex web of mystery like most anime might do, B: The Beginning aims at giving viewers a dual experience with genres that blend together. We talk more about what we liked about B: The Beginning in the section below by pointing out multiple elements that truly stand out in the series. Now let us dive into what we thought were the best points of B: The Beginning. Don’t worry about spoilers here either folks, we avoided them pretty well to not ruin your experience.
1. Action and Mystery Collide
Immediately, those who sit down and begin to watch B: The Beginning unfold will realize that while this is a mystery focused thriller, there is also a ton of action to be had too. Koko, Yuna and several of the other non-human characters are equipped with powerful supernatural abilities like transforming limbs into weapons and even being able to run at insane speeds. Sure, Keith Flick will often work alongside Lily and the other RIS members to solve several cases that pop up in B: The Beginning. However, when Keith and team aren’t sniffing out clues for the location of our main killer, B: The Beginning switches to a more action orientated show where sparks and blood fly. Keith himself also fights a few times with some guns during the latter half of B: The Beginning but ultimately the show tries to keep audiences entertained by splitting the series into two neat parts. One being a mystery anime and the other a fast-paced action series. This ultimately keeps B: The Beginning from ever becoming too slow and boring which is a very good thing indeed.
2. Interesting main characters
Keith Flick, Koku, Lily and many others in B: The Beginning are the characters that keep the story and narrative of the series alive and well for a dozen episodes. Keith's tale takes the lead though—in our minds—due to his thought process in piecing together clues and solving the mystery of who Killer B is. Equally, Lily near the midway point of the series begins to gain some strength as well as she shows signs of being on par with Keith in numerous ways, despite her sometimes-ridiculous actions and attitude. Meanwhile, Koku’s journey in finding Yuna—a girl very rooted in the tale of B: The Beginning—is one of revenge and purpose that kept us rooting for the angelic being every time he showed up. There are many other heroes and villains of B: The Beginning that make the series amazing but we won’t dive too much further into them to avoid spoiling some of their introductions. When you see Koku’s main enemies and Keith’s target to find in B: The Beginning you’ll be left in utter awe.
3. Wonderful animation and style
While cool characters with deep narratives and impressive action might be a good thing for any anime series, it needs animation to back it up. Luckily, B: The Beginning is helmed by famous studio Production I.G—creators of shows like Psycho-Pass and Higashi no Eden to name a few—which means the animation is on point. We love seeing Keith deduce things via on screen ques that show his process as he thinks in his mind. When Koku fights—and he fights several times in B: The Beginning—the action is intense with the animation being smooth and fluid. We also love the style of B: The Beginning which reminds us of a lot of American/European mystery TV shows. B: The Beginning looks incredible and really every scene is made better because of the efforts by Production I.G.
Why You Should Skip B: The Beginning
B: The Beginning is pretty darn enjoyable as we hope our earlier comments and thoughts have projected to you all. The world of Keith and Koku is unique and intriguing in numerous ways which lasts for all 12-episodes of B: The Beginning. However, this mystery/thriller/action series isn’t perfect and does have some issues we’d like to discuss in further detail. We’re not saying these problems made us dislike B: The Beginning but they might make your personal enjoyment of it a bit tougher. Here are some reasons you may want to avoiding beginning B: The Beginning.
1. Very fast beginning
B: The Beginning has a powerful beginning—as ironic as that sounds—that hooked us from the very first few minutes by showing an intriguing world of mystery and action alike. However, one of our biggest gripes with B: The Beginning is how fast it seems to start off. For the first few episodes B: The Beginning aims to introduce a lot of characters, the main theme and the main premise in a rapid-fire way. While it’s not impossible to understand what is going on, it does make the experience of seeing the world of B: The Beginning and the characters kind of less enjoyable. Don’t go into B: The Beginning expecting a simple story with a slow start. B: The Beginning wants to get right into the gist of what’s going on and for some it might be a bit hard to follow.
2. Some characters aren’t fleshed out enough
From the beginning, B: The Beginning introduces us to a wide assortment of characters within the RIS team and even some of the main baddies within Market Maker. While many anime viewers love tons of characters—like we do here at Honey’s Anime—this also means some of these characters aren’t full fleshed out. Numerous RIS members like Brian and Mario—who we think are interesting characters—are barely focused on in favor of Keith, Lily and the various baddies in B: The Beginning. It’s a shame but this is the issue with any anime series that includes too many characters. If there is a second season of B: The Beginning we hope that we can learn about these people in a bit more depth. The same can be said of the Market Maker group who are barely touched upon—in our opinions—in B: The Beginning.
3. One of the main antagonists stands out early on
Now we here at Honey’s Anime won’t consider ourselves sleuths or detectives in training, but we do appreciate when a mystery anime—or TV show for that matter—allows us to sit down and think who the antagonists are and who should we be rooting for as the heroes. B: The Beginning does an adequate job of keeping some of it’s harder to notice secrets from being seen too quickly but one of the main villains—who we will not spoil—is absurdly obvious from their introduction in the first episode. That’s why when they revealed who is one of the major villains in episode 9 we here at Honey’s Anime just groaned. If you don’t like anime that make the main enemy extremely noticeable from episode 1, you might want to look elsewhere for another mystery anime. Though, remember B: The Beginning does have multiple baddies to try to figure out but even those are semi-noticeable.
Final Thoughts
B: The Beginning might not be perfect but the interesting world it presents and several of the main characters like Keith Flick and Koku are very interesting and kept us engaged with their plights. Equally, Production I.G really did an amazing job with the animation for B: The Beginning but those who love their other works won’t be too surprised. B: The Beginning takes a deep narrative filled with mysteries and action to create a thriller we think will be more than worth your time. Have you watched B: The Beginning yet or are you thinking of binging it since the whole series is out on Netflix? Tell us in the comments below as we always love hearing from our readers. Remember for more anime reviews and articles be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.
Author: Aaron
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